Finding a clear definition to the word meme, is a rather complex task. So complex in a way that brings up so many other topics  and questions that one is driven to question the very necessity for a  strict, scholarly definition of a concept with so many meanings that defies and arguably could even defeat the idea of some specific significance to specific signifiers.

The term “meme” was coined by pop star geneticist  Richard Dawkins in 1972, as he intended, put rather too simply, to study culture and communication under  a Darwinian evolutionary idea. According to Dawkins, a meme would be a small unit of cultural transmission or imitation, in a similar  way that the gene is a small unit of biological transmission (Dawkins,1972). The implications of this evolutionary perspective on the studies regarding language and culture have often been debated and disputed in academia. Some  scholars would even  say that  the so called field of memetics is a perversion and misunderstanding of communication science , that in a  somewhat generalist and clumsy way tries to substitute the semiotic concept of sign for the novel concept that is the meme.
 

Nevertheless, the relevance of the meme in internet culture comes not from any scholarly  centralized deep analysis, but from the collective and many times ephemeral meaning that the most diverse online communities co-create. As we shall see later, the meme is an important phenomena  for a cultural transition  from a structuralist  verbal and visual language, in which most signs hold one specific meaning, towards a more complex paradigm of language that may or may not dialogue with poststructuralism, in which signs have many or no specific meanings, and can be interchanged  among each other free from the boundaries of traditional forms of art and entertainment.

For most of this article, the term “meme” or “internet meme” will be referring to a combination of  verbal language with some sort of image, either static, moving or sonorous, that circulates in a viral wave in digital spaces such as social media, group chats, online forums, streaming platforms, gaming hubs, etc. This definition is, and must be somewhat imprecise. Some of the composing bricks of that  type of image commonly and intuitively recognized as a meme may be missing with the absence of that component preventing the quick recognition of the said image as a meme. This recognition happens on many levels, thanks  to what could be called an essence or a vibe, as it’s mentioned in the first meme, seen right below the title, in which the author radically  opposes the use of definitions, preferring a more intuitive, collective approach, since  their peers communicate through these “vibes”.